Messages - GuyF

Oh, and who's decisive moment is it anyway? Cartier-Bresson's shot taken behind the Gare St. Lazare (Google it) might have been better a split second later with the pedestrian's toe just in the puddle causing ripples. No? We'll never know since he didn't have motordrive.

Got an e-mail from Calumet saying they're doing certain Canon lenses this weekend with double cashback - current cashback on 70-200 f2.8 is £200 so get extra £200 off at the checkout. £400 off? Sounds like a deal.

This is what's great about this site. I just checked the charge in my LP-E6 battery the other day and saw that the "pleasantly reassuring" 3 green blocks are now 2 green blocks. I know the battery won't die on me any time soon but did wonder about the average number of recharges a user might expect and bingo!, here's a thread about the same thing (more or less).

I'm sure I read somewhere (probably here on CR) that newer technology batteries like the LP-E6 give better life expectancy if recharged from higher charge levels, say, 70% rather than letting them drop to around 15% or discharged fully. Does anyone know if that's an accurate statement and does anyone know the average number of charges we can expect to get from our genuine Canon batteries? I suspect it'll be a couple of years yet before I have to replace my one but it would be nice to know I'll have the Canon medium format body before then .

RPT - ah, but you forget the 500mm is f4 and a 2x TC takes it to f8 so f5.6 would be tricky!

As many lenses are sharpest when stopped down a couple of stops, I thought f11 would be a good compromise (I understand that diffraction kicks in around here on the 5D3 but only if you look for it in shots taken beyond, say, f16 - cue the naysayers on that topic!). Clearly depth of field isn't an issue but maximising sharpness/detail was, hence the stopping down. The moon was very bright but you're still shooting through an awful lot of atmosphere which will soften the image. At ISO 320 I wouldn't really have any noise to worry about and with it tripod mounted, I manually focused in Liveview and set things to mirror lock-up, 10sec timer to allow most vibration to dampen down and IS mode 3, crossed my fingers and the rest is history.

Nice work and not all that oversharpened...what radius did you use? I assume this is a 100% crop? How much better is the Kenko 2x TC, than the Canon series ii 2x TC?

Carl - Glad you (and rpt) liked the shot.

For info: f11 1/25th at iso 320Adobe Camera RAW:Sharp 66Radius 1.6Detail 61Masking 0(Basically mess around with the sliders 'til it looks okay(!) and also tweak the curves and contrast etc.)

The cropped image ended up 2512*1905 then was resized for posting here.

As for the Canon 2x mk2 TC. No idea! I've had the Kenko 1.4x and 2x DG 300 TCs for a while now. I originally got them for use with my 300mm f2.8 IS mk1. The 1.4x is very good, very sharp but the 2x is pretty soft so I only use it if absolutely necessary. I got the Canon 1.4x mk3 TC free when I bought the 500mm. I haven't compared the Kenko 1.4x to the Canon with regards to speed - I just assume (hope!) the Canon provides faster focussing as it's designed specifically for the mk2 big whites.

Both Kenko TCs aren't worth much secondhand so I'll probably keep them for use with my Tamron 90mm macro. Clearly Canon have a reason for designing their TCs the way they do but the protruding front element really screws up your choices of what lenses you can use with them.

One technique for using a big lens with a monopod is to keep your left hand as far forward towards the open end of the lens hood as possible. Using your hands at both ends of the body/lens combo gives greater control over the heavy lens swiveling about its pivot point (i.e. the monopod). Doing this allows more control when panning and "fine tuning" the balance point. Keeping the left hand really close to the camera body will have the combo wanting to tilt all over the place thanks to that physics slut, Mrs Inertia.

What lens did you use for your shots Guy? Very nice.I recently sold my 2 telephoto lenses and am in the process of upgrading them. First will probably be the 70-300L as its very small to fit in bag and it seems like a good zoo lens.

The black and white shot of the Goeldi's monkey was a Tamron 90mm f2.8 (I'd taken it to get some shots of poison arrow frogs but they were in a closed off area due to construction work ). Hard to get sharp shots through dirty windows and bad lighting!

All other shots are the 500mm f4 mk2. Amazing lens. Purchased to massage a mid-life crisis .

Depending on which zoo you go to, you can still be quite far from the animals. All these shots are quite cropped. I also had the 1.4x mk3 TC with me but pretty much forgot about it most of the time I was there. The main problem is shooting through grotty windows or mesh fence. A fence is okay if you're right up against it but often it may be 8 or 10 feet away from you. The lion was probably 50 or 60 feet away.

That's the internet for you - just because their site has gone AWOL doesn't mean they're dead in the water. I just spent a fortune with Mifsuds and their site isn't available either. Probably just down for maintenance...or something more nefarious.

Thanks for the suggestions. Having looked around the web at these bags I think the Lowepro Trekker 600 AW II might be the best one for me. Even though I've just spent crazy money on the 500mm and 1.4x TC I don't want to spend too much on another bag - I've already got four of varying ages and types depending on what's required.